Interview: David Berliner Gives a Tour of the Art at Barclays Center

The Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets, is also home to a series of art commissions that will only multiply in the months and years to come. The stadium currently has one-of-a-kind pieces by José Parlá, Mickalene Thomas, and OpenEndedGroup, in addition to a new series of photographs celebrating The Black Fives, a series of African-American basketball teams in Brooklyn before the racial integration of the NBA.

Board member and executive director, David Berliner, gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of the art pieces they have at The Barclays Center so far. Of the decision to have art there, he says,

"The idea of putting art somewhere that isn't a museum is interesting to me, because people don’t know what they are going to get, and they can start to see something in a new way. That’s why I like putting art in this place, because people don’t come here for the art. In the first year alone, this building will have 2.6 million people come through it. It's just the idea of exposing people to this art. It’s amazing when you think about how much power we have."